Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Human Services

Advisor

Barbara Benoliel

Abstract

The number of homeless millennials seeking shelter in New York City (NYC) increases

nightly. Aside from seeking shelter services, millennial adults are also staying in shelters longer than the time allotted by the city. Their extended stay places a burden on city resources and taxpayers. Although there is research on the millennial generation and homelessness in NYC, more research is needed on the experiences of single, millennial adults who stay in shelters for extended periods of time. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore the experiences of 4 long-term-stay millennials, 25 to 34 years of age, residing in single adult NYC shelters to understand how they explain and interpret their extended stays. Arnett’s interpretation of emerging adulthood as part of generational theory provided the study’s conceptual framework. The data were manually reviewed, organized, and analyzed using precoding from the literature, and themes emerged by clustering the coded data into collected categories. The themes that emerged from the analysis were limited exposure to housing resources and information, difficulty finding employment or jobs with a livable wage, limited engagement with shelter staff, poor socialization skills, and trauma. The study findings contribute to social change by helping human service professionals identify the challenges among millennials currently in shelter for an extended stay and barriers to exiting successfully. This information may help human services professionals and policymakers develop solutions for reducing long- term homelessness among this population.

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